A passport which has a number of pages which are connected together by means of stitching or adhesive is described for example in WO 2004/011272 A2. A transfer film is further incorporated into that passport by stitching or adhesive. The transfer film has a base film and a detachable decorative layer arrangement which is releasable from the base film. In that case the decorative layer arrangement has a replication lacquer layer with a structure which has a holographic or optical-diffraction effect, as well as an adhesive layer by means of which the decorative layer can be joined to a page of the passport. For the purpose of individualising the security document the adhesive layer of the decorative layer arrangement is provided with an individualised print thereon. The adhesive layer is then activated and in that way the decorative layer arrangement is joined to the adjacent page of the passport. The base film is then removed from the decorative layer arrangement, in which case a perforation is provided in the base film in the region of the binding or stitching so that the base film can then be removed from the passport.
It is further known for passports to be fitted with RF identification circuits (RF=radio frequency).
Because of the thickness and mechanical flexibility of RF identification circuits, such circuits are in this case usually fixed on or in the cover of a passport, which is of a greater thickness and is of higher mechanical stability than the individual pages of the passport.
Thus for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,956 describes an RF identification circuit having a series of antennae which are produced by means of an etching process from a copper laminate. The copper laminate is applied to a dielectric. As the dielectric does not afford any electrical function it can be very thin, whereby the mechanical flexibility of the RF identification circuit is increased.
Furthermore U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,222 describes an RF identification circuit which reflects an RF carrier emitted by a base station back to the base station and in so doing modulates onto the reflected signal additional information in accordance with a pre-programmed information protocol. The RF identification circuit has a semiconductor circuit with a memory and one or more RF components of an RF circuit. The semiconductor circuit is mounted on a substrate. The RF signal received by the antenna is passed to the semiconductor circuit. The substrate is a flexible, non-conducting substrate. The antenna is an integral constituent part of the substrate. It comprises a 25 to 35 μm thick track applied to a polyester or polyamide layer. That provides that the thickness of the RF identification circuit does not exceed the thickness of the passport cover and the RF identification circuit can thus be arranged in the cover of the passport.